On Sunday night, Media Matters published a series of freshly unearthed audio clips in which Fox News host Tucker Carlson made sexist and creepy comments about women, including calling women in general “extremely primitive,” stating that they should “be quiet and kind of do what you’re told,” and defended Warren Jeffs, a convicted pedophile who was found guilty of sexual assault.
After the clips were published, sparking widespread outrage, Carlson doubled down and refused to apologize. In a statement released Sunday night — typed on the Notes app, of course — he wrote, “Media Matters caught me saying something naughty on a radio show more than a decade ago. Rather than express the usual ritual contrition, how about this: I’m on television every weeknight live for an hour. If you want to know what I think, you can watch. Anyone who disagrees with my views is welcome to come on and explain why.”
According to Media Matters, the clips are from calls Carlson made to The Bubba the Love Sponge Show radio program between 2006 and 2011, on which he offered up his thoughts on underage girls and sex, amongst other things, and lashed out at well-known women like Britney Spears and Paris Hilton, whom he called “the biggest white whores in America.” Carlson called in to the show frequently.
When Bubba the Love Sponge suggested that girls at Carlson’s teen daughter’s boarding school might be “experiment[ing] around” with each other, Carlson said, “If it weren’t my daughter, I would love that scenario.”
He also called for the end of rape shield laws, and defended Warren Jeffs, a convicted pedophile who facilitated marriages between adult men and underaged girls. Jeffs, according to Carlson, is only in prison because “he’s weird and unpopular and he has a different lifestyle that other people find creepy.”
According to the audio, Carlson also called Arianna Huffington a “pig” and described TV host Alexis Stewart, the daughter of Martha Stewart, as “cunty.”
Given that Carlson doesn’t have a great track record when it comes to women, these comments don’t come as a surprise. In the past, he has said that rape survivors who don’t immediately come forward are “part of the problem,” and that “sexual harassment is a concept made up by Democrats.” And let’s not forget last year’s International Women’s Day, which Carlson honored by launching a male empowerment series.